A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

Session 5 Cultivating Our Character The Outward Disciplines

In God’s family, Jesus Christ is the essence of perfect adulthood, the measure of spiritual maturity, the standard to which we aspire to grow. Becoming perfectly like Him – all He is in His humanity, with all the graces and qualities and attitudes and character traits that He possesses, the fullness of who and what He is – will be our ultimate destiny (Rom. 8.29). Keeping that goal in mind right now will help us stay on the right track along the way, help us make the most profitable use of our time on earth by giving supreme attention to the most important issue in life – growing in His likeness. Christlike ness is what God wants to accomplish in us above all else. He isn’t trying to make us successful business people so we can impress the world with our money and affluence. He isn’t trying to make us successful churchmen, so we can amaze people with our organiza tional and administrative skills. He isn’t trying to make us great orators, so we can overwhelm audiences with our persuasive words. He wants to reproduce in us the character of Christ – His love, His kindness, His compassion, His holiness, His humility, His unselfishness, His servant’s spirit, His willingness to suffer wrongfully, His willing ness to forgive. His character in us is what will attract the world to Him. ~ Richard L. Strauss. Growing More Like Jesus . Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 1991. pp. 16-17.

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I. The Discipline of the Simplicity

Matt. 6.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. “We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.” . . . This psychosis permeates even our myth ology. The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor. (We still find it hard to imagine that a girl could do either!) Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.

~ Foster. Celebration of Discipline . pp. 80-81.

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